After posting the "Fiesta Navidena" video, some of you have asked why I am in the Spanish Branch. Well, since the holidays are over and my kids are in the kitchen playing with "goo", I actually have the time to post the answer.
3 1/2 years ago we moved to Louisville for Shane to attend Law School. Before moving here we found out that Louisville had a Spanish Branch. I was worried that Shane would lose his Spanish during law school if he wasn't forced to practice it. Prior to moving to Louisville he had plenty of practice at school (he did a double major which included spanish) and he also was a translator in the Jail system. So, when we moved to Louisville we were trying to think of ways that we could get into the Spanish Branch. We moved into the boundaries of the building where the Spanish Branch met to increase our chances of getting in. Then, after attending the English ward for a couple of months I asked one of the counselors how we could possibly attend the Spanish Branch. Well, the rest was history. The executive secretary from the Spanish branch was sitting right by us when I made that comment and he immediately told the branch president that we were interested and wanted to go. A week later we received a call from the Stake President asking us to meet him. He extended us a calling as Service Missionaries in the branch for 18 months. Well, 18 months came and went and we gladly extended our service mission many times. Finally after almost 3 years we were released from the Spanish Branch 2 weeks ago. It was sooooooooo amazingly sad but we were ready to go. It was a LOT of work.
The main reason why they needed service missionaries in the branch was because most members were brand new. We had baptisms almost every sunday. So you have TONS of new members, and none that are capable or ready for large scale callings. Even small callings were very intimidating for these people. So we were there to teach and train members how to hold callings and then also hold callings that the members simply couldn't have yet.
Now some of you might be thinking that I speak Spanish having spent so much time in the Spanish branch. You would be sooooooo wrong. I didn't speak a word of it before going in and I really haven't progressed much beyond that. For the first 2 years I was the Young Women's president and all of the youth programs are done in English. They do this because they combine all of those programs with an English ward so there are more youth to interact with. Plus, 99% of the time the kids can speak English. Also, many of the members really wanted somebody to practice their english with. They all said they felt comfortable with me practicing their English and I felt strongly about helping them. The not speaking Spanish part really wasn't a problem until I was released from YW's. Once I had to start attending Relief Society and stuff that kinda got old not understanding what was going on. But once again, almost everybody there either speaks english or is trying to learn, so I always had plenty of interpreters.
So there you go, that's my story.
